''Escape from Sobibor'' is a

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

British

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

which aired on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. It is the story of the mass escape from the Nazi

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

Sobibor Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As an ...

, the most successful uprising by

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

prisoners of German extermination camps (uprisings also took place at

Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

and

Treblinka Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...

). The film was directed by

Jack Gold Jacob M. "Jack" Gold (28 June 1930 – 9 August 2015) was a British film and television director. He was part of the Kitchen sink realism, British realist tradition which followed the Free Cinema movement. Career Jacob M. Gold was born in ...

and shot in

Avala Avala ( sr-cyr, Авала, ) is a mountain in Serbia, overlooking Belgrade. It is situated in the south-eastern corner of the city and provides a great panoramic view of Belgrade, Vojvodina and Šumadija, as the surrounding area on all sides ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

(now

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

). The full 176-minute version shown in the UKRunning to 169 minutes with PAL speed-up. on 10 May 1987 was pre-empted by a 143-minute version shown in the United States on 12 April 1987. The script, by

Reginald Rose Reginald Rose (December 10, 1920 – April 19, 2002) was an American screenwriter. He wrote about controversial social and political issues. His realistic approach was particularly influential in the anthology programs of the 1950s. Rose w ...

, was based on

Richard Rashke Richard L. Rashke (born 1936) is an American journalist, teacher and author, who has written non-fiction books, as well as plays and screenplays. He is especially known for his history, ''Escape from Sobibor,'' first published in 1982, an account ...

's 1983 book of the same name, along with a manuscript by

Thomas Blatt Thomas "Toivi" Blatt (born Tomasz Blatt; April 15, 1927 – October 31, 2015) was a Holocaust survivor, writer of mémoires, and public speaker, who at the age of 16 escaped from the Sobibór extermination camp during the uprising staged by the ...

, "From the Ashes of Sobibor", and a book by Stanisław Szmajzner, ''Inferno in Sobibor''.

Alan Arkin Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director and screenwriter known for his performances on stage and screen. Throughout his career spanning over six decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award ...

Joanna Pacuła Joanna Pacuła (; born 30 December 1957) is a Polish-American actress and model. Born in Tomaszów Lubelski and emigrating to the United States in the early 1980s, she first gained prominence through her modeling work for Vogue. Her breakthro ...

, and

Rutger Hauer Rutger Oelsen Hauer (; 23 January 1944 – 19 July 2019) was a Dutch actor. In 1999, he was named by the Dutch public as the Best Dutch Actor of the Century. Hauer's career began in 1969 with the title role in the Dutch television series ' ...

were the primary stars of the film. The film received a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

for Best Miniseries or Television Film and Hauer received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role—Television Film or Miniseries. Esther Raab was a camp survivor who had assisted Rashke with his book and served as a technical consultant.

Background

On 14 October 1943, members of the Sobibor camp's

underground resistance Underground Resistance (commonly abbreviated to UR) are an American musical collective from Detroit, Michigan. Producing primarily Detroit techno since 1990 with a grungy four-track musical aesthetic, they are also renowned for their militant p ...

succeeded in covertly killing 11 German ''

SS-Totenkopfverbände ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV; ) was the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organization responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps for Nazi Germany, among similar duties. While the ''Totenkopf'' was the univer ...

'' officers and a number of ''

Sonderdienst ''Sonderdienst'' (german: Special Services) were the Nazi German paramilitary formations created in semicolonial General Government during the occupation of Poland in World War II. They were based on similar '' SS'' formations called ''Volksdeuts ...

'' Ukrainian and ''

Volksdeutsche In Nazi German terminology, ''Volksdeutsche'' () were "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship". The term is the nominalised plural of '' volksdeutsch'', with ''Volksdeutsche'' denoting a sin ...

'' guards. Of the 600 inmates in the camp, roughly 300 escaped, although all but 50–70 were later re-captured and killed. After the escape, SS Chief

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

ordered the death camp closed. It was dismantled, bulldozed under the earth, and planted over with trees to cover it up.

Plot

The film begins with a new trainload of Polish Jews arriving for processing at

. The German Commandant gives them a welcome speech, assuring the new arrivals that the place is a

work camp In the United States, Workamping (a portmanteau word) is a combination of work and camping. A Workamper combines part-time or full-time paid or volunteer work with RV or tent camping. Workampers generally receive compensation in the form of a fr ...

. Other SS officers move along the assembled lines of prisoners, selecting a small number who have trade skills (such as goldsmiths, seamstresses, shoemakers, and tailors). The remaining prisoners are sent away to a different part of the camp from which a pillar of smoke rises day and night. It is some time before the new prisoners realise that Sobibor is a

death camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

; all of the other Jews are exterminated in

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Histor ...

s, and their corpses are cremated in large ovens. The small number of prisoners kept alive in the other part of the camp are charged with sorting the belongings taken from those who are murdered and then repairing the shoes, recycling the clothing, and melting down any silver or gold to make jewellery for the SS officers. Despite their usefulness, these surviving prisoners' existence is precarious; beatings and murders can occur at any time.

Gustav Wagner Gustav Franz Wagner (18 July 1911 – 3 October 1980) was an Austrian member of the ''Schutzstaffel, SS'' with the rank of Staff sergeant (''Oberscharführer''). Wagner was a deputy commander of Sobibor extermination camp in General Government, Ge ...

is the most clever and sadistic of the German officers. When two prisoners escape from a work detail in the nearby forest, Wagner forces the remaining thirteen prisoners of the work gang to each select one other prisoner to die with them (under the threat that if they refuse, he will select fifty) and then executes all twenty six. The leader of the prisoners,

Leon Feldhendler Leon Felhendler (Lejb Felhendler) (1 June 1910 – 6 April 1945) was a Polish resistance fighter known for his role in organizing the 1943 prisoner uprising at Sobibor extermination camp together with Alexander Pechersky. Prewar life Felhendler ...

, realises that when the trains eventually stop coming, the camp will have outlived its usefulness, and all the remaining Jews will be murdered. He devises a plan for every prisoner to escape, by luring the SS officers and NCOs into the prisoners' barracks and work huts one by one and killing them as quietly as possible. Once all the Germans are dead, the prisoners will assemble into columns and simply march out of the camp as if they have been ordered to, and it is hoped that the Ukrainian Guards, not knowing what is going on, and with no Germans left alive to give orders or raise the alarm, will not interfere. A new group of prisoners arrives: Russian Jews who were soldiers with the Soviet army. Their leader, Sasha Pechersky, and his men, willingly join the revolt, their military skills proving invaluable. The Camp Kommandant leaves for several days, taking Wagner with him, which proves an advantage as the most sadistic of the SS officers will be absent. On 14 October 1943, the plan goes into action. One by one, SS officers and NCOs are lured into traps set by groups of prisoners armed with knives and clubs. Eleven Germans are killed, but one officer,

Karl Frenzel Karl August Wilhelm Frenzel
(20 August 1911 – 2 September 1996) was an Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

, surviving the war, and Feldhendler lives to see the end of the war but is killed shortly afterwards in a clash with anti-semitic Poles. After the uprising, which was the largest escape from a prison camp of any kind in Europe during World War II, Sobibor was bulldozed to the ground, and trees were planted on the site to remove any sign of its existence.

Cast

In credits order: *

as Luka (

Gertrude Poppert Gertrude or Gertrud may refer to: Places In space *Gertrude (crater), a crater on Uranus's moon Titania *710 Gertrud, a minor planet Terrestrial placenames *Gertrude, Arkansas *Gertrude, Washington *Gertrude, West Virginia People *Gertrude (giv ...

) *

as Lieutenant Aleksandr 'Sasha' Pechersky * Hartmut Becker as SS-Hauptscharführer Gustav WagnerAlthough the character wears the rank insignia of a

sturmscharführer __NOTOC__ (, ) was a Nazi rank of the Waffen-SS that existed between 1934 and 1945. The rank was the most senior enlisted rank in the Waffen-SS, the equivalent of a regimental sergeant major, in other military organizations. Rank usage ''Sturm ...

, he is addressed as "

hauptscharführer __NOTOC__ ''Hauptscharführer'' ( ) was a Nazi paramilitary rank which was used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank was the highest enlisted rank of the SS, with the exception of the special Waffen-SS rank ...

" throughout. Wagner held the lower rank of

oberscharführer __NOTOC__ ''Oberscharführer'' (, ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between 1932 and 1945. ''Oberscharführer'' was first used as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions ...

. * Jack Shepherd as Itzhak Lichtman *

Emil Wolk Arnold Emil Wolk (born 1944) is an Anglo-American stage director and stage and screen actor. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award in 1988 (1987 season) as 'Best Actor in a Musical' for ''Kiss Me, Kate'', sharing the award with co-star John Bar ...

as Samuel Freiberg * Simon Gregor as Stanisław 'Shlomo' Szmajzner *

Linal Haft Linal Haft (born 23 March 1945 in Leeds) is an English actor, best known for playing controlling or manipulative characters in both film and television, most notably his role as businessman Harry Gold in the popular BBC soap opera ''EastEnders ...

Kapo A kapo or prisoner functionary (german: Funktionshäftling) was a prisoner in a Nazi camp who was assigned by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks. Also called "prisoner self-administrat ...

Porchek * Jason Norman as Thomas 'Toivi' Blatt *

Robert Gwilym Robert Gwilym (born 2 December 1956), sometimes known as Bob Gwilym, is a Welsh actor. Robert Gwilym was born in Neath, Glamorgan, Wales, where his family owned a chain of lingerie shops. His brother, Mike Gwilym, also made his name as an actor. ...

as Chaim Engel * Eli Nathenson as Moses Szmajzner *

Kurt Raab Kurt Raab (20 July 1941 – 28 June 1988) was a West German stage and film actor, as well as a screenwriter and playwright. Raab is best remembered for his work with German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, with whom he collaborated on 31 ...

as SS-Oberscharführer Karl FrenzelThe character wears the collar patches of a

scharführer ''Scharführer'' (, ) was a title or rank used in early 20th Century German military terminology. In German, ''Schar'' was one term for the smallest sub-unit, equivalent to (for example) a "troop" , " squad", or "section". The word ''führer'' ...

and the epaulettes of a

, but is addressed by the actual Frenzel's correct rank of

throughout. *

Eric Caspar Eric P. Caspar (born Jürg Kretz; 14 May 1941) is a Swiss actor. He appeared in more than fifty films since 1970. Selected filmography References External links

* 1941 births Living people Swiss male film actors {{Switzerland-a ...

as SS-Hauptsturmführer Franz Reichleitner * Hugo Bower as SS-Oberscharführer Rudolf Beckmann *

Klaus Grünberg Klaus Grünberg (born 20 November 1941 in Wismar, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous ...

as SS-Oberscharführer Erich Bauer * Wolfgang Bathke as SS-Unterscharführer Hurst *

Henning Gissel Henning (surname), Henning is a surname, also used as a given name, with origins in East Prussia (now part of Germany). Henning may also refer to: People with Henning as a surname * A. J. Henning (born 2002), American football player * Andrew ...

as SS-Scharführer Fallaster * Henry Stolow as SS-Untersturmführer Johann Niemann * Ullrich Haupt as SS-Scharführer Josef Wolf * Patti Love as Eda Fiszer Lichtman * Judith Sharp as Bajle Sobol * as Selma Wijnberg * David Miller as Tailor Mundek * Jack Chissick as Hershel Zuckerman * Ned Vukovic as Morris *

Sara Sugarman Sara Sugarman (born 13 October 1962) is a Welsh actress and filmmaker whose work includes Disney's '' Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen'' (2004) and '' Very Annie Mary'' (2001). She has also appeared in films including '' Dealers'' (1989) and ...

as Naomi * Peter Jonfield as Kapo Sturm * Dijana Kržanić as Esther Terner *

Irfan Mensur Irfan Mensur ( sr-cyr, Ирфан Менсур; born Irfan Kurić, sr-cyr, Ирфан Курић; 19 January 1952) is a Serbian theatre, television, and film actor of Bosnian descent. Early life Born to father Mensur Kurić from Niš whose fami ...

as Kalimali *

Zoran Stojiljković Zoran ( sr-Cyrl, Зоран) is a common South Slavic name, the masculine form of Zora, which means ''dawn, daybreak''. The name is especially common in Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia and a little in Slovenia. Notable people with this given na ...

as Boris * Svetolik Nikačević as Old Man * Miša Janketić as Oberkapo Berliner * Dejan Čavić as Kapo Spitz * Zlatan Fazlagić as Weiss *

Predrag Milinković Predrag Milinković ( sr-cyr, Предраг Милинковић; 20 August 1933 – 4 April 1998) was a Serbian actor. He was the most famous side-kick actror in ex- Yugoslav movies. He appeared in 222 films from 1958 to 1998. Selected filmogra ...

as Kapo Jacob *

Svetislav Goncić Svetislav "Bule" Goncić ( sr-cyr, Светислав "Буле" Гонцић; born 5 May 1960) is a Serbian actor. He has appeared in more than seventy films since 1971. Selected filmography References External links * 1960 births ...

as Gardener *

Gojko Baletić Gojko ( Serbian script: Гојко) is a masculine given name of an old South Slavic origin. Meaning is little hidden but is connected with peace, as Pacific. It may refer to: *Gojko Balšić, 15th-century nobleman *Gojko Berkuljan (1923–1989), p ...

as Guard (uncredited) *

Milan Erak Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ha ...

as SS Corporal (uncredited) * Rastislav Jović as Shlomo's Father (uncredited) *

Erol Kadić Erol is a Turkish given name or surname meaning "brave". This name is shared by the following people: Given name * Erol Alkan (born 1974), Turkish Cypriot DJ, artist and record producer * Erol Erdal Alkan (born 1994), Turkish footballer * Erol Be ...

as Gardener * Miroljub Lešo as Prisoner (uncredited) * Bozidar Pavićević-Longa as SS-Sturmmann Ivan Klatt (uncredited) *

Howard K. Smith Howard Kingsbury Smith (May 12, 1914 – February 15, 2002) was an American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, political commentator, and film actor. He was one of the original members of the team of war correspondents known as th ...

as Narrator (American version) (uncredited) * Dragomir Stanojević as Guard (uncredited) * Predrag Todorović as Guard (uncredited) *

Jelena Žigon Jelena Žigon ( sr-cyr, Јелена Жигон; 3 November 1933 – 10 April 2018), was a Serbian and Yugoslav actress. Biography Žigon (maiden name Jovanović) was born in Belgrade to a family hailing from Bajina Bašta, while her mother was ...

as Shlomo's Mother (uncredited)

Footnotes

References

External links